the coroner he went on.

"I was merely going to say--and I don't suppose it is evidence--" he
added, "that I understand this man visited several of my brother
clergymen in the neighbourhood on the same errand. It was talked of at
the last meeting of our rural deanery."

"Ah!" remarked the coroner significantly. "He appears, then, to have been
going round examining the parish registers--we must get more evidence of
that later, for I'm convinced it has a bearing on the subject of this
present inquiry. But a question or two more, Mr. Ridley. There are
stipulated fees for searching the registers, I believe. Did Gilverthwaite
pay them in your case?"

Mr. Ridley smiled.

"He not only paid the fees," he answered, "but he forced me to accept
something for the poor box. He struck me as being a man who was inclined
to be free with his money."

The coroner looked at the solicitor who was representing the police.

"I don't know if you want to ask this witness any questions?" he
inquired.

"Yes," said the solicitor. He turned to Mr. Ridley. "You heard what the
witness Hugh Moneylaws said?--that Gilverthwaite mentioned on his coming
to Berwick that he had kinsfolk buried in the neighbourhood? You did?
Well, Mr. Ridley, do you know if there are people of that name buried in
your churchyard?"

"There are not," replied Mr. Ridley promptly. "What is more, the name
Gilverthwaite does not occur in our parish registers. I have a complete
index of the registers from 1580, when they began to be kept, and there
is no such name in it. I can also tell you this," he added, "I am, I
think I may say, something of an authority on the parish registers of
this district--I have prepared and edited several of them for
publication, and I am familiar with most of them. I do not think that
name, Gilverthwaite, occurs in any of them."

"What do you deduce from that, now?" asked the solicitor.

"That whatever it was that the man was searching for--and I am sure he
was searching--it was not for particulars of his father's family,"
answered Mr. Ridley. "That is, of course, if his name really was what he
gave it out to be--Gilverthwaite."

"Precisely!" said the coroner. "It may have been an assumed name."

"The man may have been searching for particulars of his mother's family,"
remarked the solicitor.

"That line of thought would carry us too far afield just now," said the
coroner. He turned to the jury. "I've allowed this evidence about the ma